It's the end of the Mac gaming world as you know it, to quote a song. In response to popular request from shocked readers, I'm posting 7 game benchmarks with best settings at 2560x1440. Maybe the 27-inch 'late 2012' iMac with the GeForce GTX 680MX won't be so strong -- or will it?

Laminar Research X-Plane 10 - Run from Terminal app using this command line: ./X-Plane.app/Contents/MacOS/X-Plane --no_fbo_minify --fps_test=3003 --load_smo=Output/replays/p3.rep --pref:_prefs_found=1 --pref:_is_full_ALL=1 --pref:_x_res_full_ALL=2560 --pref:_y_res_full_ALL=1440 --pref:_bpp_full_ALL=32. Our test was a replay of an F4 Phantom jet taking off and making a 180 degree turn. (HIGHEST number equals the best average FPS.)

STILL IMPRESSED
The 27-inch 'late 2012' iMac with the GeForce GTX 680MX had the fastest frame rate in 5 out of 7 cases. It came in second on the rest.

Why does a mobile GPU like the GeForce GTX 680MX with 2G of VRAM beat a desktop GPU like the GeForce GTX 680 Classified with 4G of VRAM. One theory is that since the 680 Classified is not a "blessed" or "flashed" GPU optimized for OS X, then it could be at a disadvantage. One way to test that theory is to run the tests under Windows 7. (Working on it.)

Another theory is that the 680MX is just that good.

MORE TO COME
We have done some added testing on various drives including two different Fusion Drives. And we have some info on heat and fan speeds when various apps are run on the 27" iMac. For other articles on the 2012 iMac 27" versus others, see our INDEX page.